Wolverine: Xisle #4

Issue Date: 
June 2003
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Bruce Jones (writer), Jorge Lucas (artist), Studio F’s Oscar Carreno (colors), David Sharpe (letters), Nova Ren Suma (assistant editor), Mike Raicht (associate editor), Mike Marts (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in Chief), Bill Jemas (president)

Brief Description: 

Wolverine is at the carnival with Amiko. He tries to win a teddy bear for her at a stall but fails. He gets angry and lashes out at her when she tells him to give up. She runs away and he chases after her, but she runs into the ocean and is attacked by a shark. Logan wakes up on a beach and realizes that it was just a dream. The waitress from the previous day had patched up his wounds and placed him in the water. They talk and Logan admits he doesn’t know what’s real and what’s a dream anymore. He deduces he has to kill the monster in the jungle and the waitress confirms it. Later on, they go swimming in a pool in the jungle. Afterwards, they walk through the jungle as the sun goes down. Logan tells the waitress he will protect her from the monster, just as a growl rings out. Logan searches for the monster but he can’t find it; he can only hear it in the undergrowth around him. When he gets distracted by the waitress, the monster attacks, slashing at his back. The monster disappears but attacks again when Logan isn’t looking. Eventually, the monster reveals itself by jumping down from the treetops. It quickly bests Logan and beats him till he is collapsed on the floor. However, before it can finish him off, the young boy from the previous day walks up to them and tells the monster to stop.

Full Summary: 

Amiko is screaming as she and Logan ride a rollercoaster. Afterwards, she tells him it was fun and asks her if she’s hungry. He buys her some candy floss and as they pass a game stall, he asks if she wants a teddy bear. She says she does and he hands the man behind the counter some money. The man tells him to hurry and Logan throws a knife at the target behind the counter. It hits the target but misses the center. He tries again and completely misses the target. He tries again and misses and Amiko tells him it’s okay.

Logan looks disheartened and the stall owner briefly commiserates with him before seeing who else wants a go. Amiko puts her hand on his arm and suggests they should leave. He angrily yells at her causing her to scream and run away. He chases after her until they have left the carnival and reach a beach. Amiko runs into the water before Logan can get to her. He yells for her to watch out as a shark appears and attacks her. She sinks beneath the waves as the water turns red.

Logan is now lying face down in the red water. He picks himself up and realizes it was all a dream. He is shirtless and his torso is bandaged up. He looks up to see a woman walking towards him. It’s the waitress from the previous night. He asks if the kid is alright and she tells him he’s fine for now. When h asks how he got back in the water, she says she put him there because the salt heals. Logan crawls over to a nearby rock and says he had a strange dream. She asks him to tell her about it and so he says it was about his foster daughter, Amiko. It’s all hazy, though, and he can’t tell dream from reality lately. He sits on the rock in silence for a few seconds and then asks her if he’s dying. She confirms he is and he says she knows if the island or the dream is real. She replies that all of life is a dream. Logan picks up some sand and lets it pass through his fingers. He says that this is real, he knows that. She tells him that it’s real then.

He unsheathes his claws and tells her he isn’t afraid to die but he won’t do it in this place. She asks him if there is anything he would miss here and he tells her it would only be her.
She asks him to take her away with him, to which he points out it’s an island and asks how he would do it. She tells him that no man is an island. After a few moments, Logan surmises that he has to kill the thing in the jungle and she tells him that one of them must die. Logan asks which one but, when he looks around, the waitress has vanished.

Later on, Logan walks through the jungle and comes across a small lake. He sees some books and a basket of fruit on the lakeside. As he picks up one of the books, the waitress yells to him from the water. She asks if he has read the book but he says it doesn’t have a title. Swimming around, she says he isn’t looking hard enough. She invites him into the water but he tells her he doesn’t have a swimsuit. She innocently asks him what a swimsuit is, prompting him to dive in with his jeans still on. He dives under the water but he cannot see her. He begins to get worried but she suddenly swims to him. She is now wearing a strange dress and she swims away, with Logan following her.

They break the surface and Logan tells her the pond is rejuvenating like a warm bath. He swims up to her and says maybe it’s the closeness of her though. She asks him if he wants to find out and she moves closer to him.

Afterwards, they are lying on the side of the lake. She tells him he’s hairy and he says all the best mutants are. He says she never did tell him her name and she asks him who he would like her to be. Wolverine starts to read from The Odyssey, one of the books on the shore. He reads a line about Ulysses being tempted by the beautiful witch, Circe. Logan asks the waitress is that’s what she is… a beautiful witch. She smiles and tells him maybe. She asks about the other book and he tells her it doesn’t have a title. She points out he can’t judge a book by its cover. He opens it up to see the name is “A Coney Island of the mind” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He puts it back down and says he doesn’t know it. She asks if he’s sure and he says he thinks he could stay there with her forever as they kiss.

Later on, it’s getting dark as they walk through the jungle. Logan asks if she’s afraid and she asks if he meant of him. He says he meant the thing in the woods and she says she isn’t. He asks if that’s because it doesn’t want her. She replies that she never said it didn’t want her, just that she wasn’t afraid of it. Logan says that it can’t have her as she’s his now. They go to kiss but a growl rips through the jungle. Logan unsheathes his claws and heads off to find where the noise came from. He hears a crack of a branch and lashes out, slashing at a tree. He continues on and keeps hearing breaking branches around him. He slashes at the undergrowth and yells for it to come and fight him like a man. The waitress comes up to him and asks if it’s wise, as it nearly killed him before. He looks at her and asks if it excites her, him fighting this thing. He points out she’s trembling but it’s not from fear, it’s from something else. He asks her again who she is.

Before she can answer, Logan is attacked from behind. He is slashed down his back, carving a deep set of gouges in him. He spins around but he can’t see what hit him. He sniffs the air and then ducks as a set of claws swipes at him again. He smiles as he gloats that he dodged the attack. However, before he can relish it for too long, the monster impales him through the shoulder. It pulls its claws out as Logan kneels on the floor in pain.

The waitress walks up to him and he instinctively points his claws at her. She tells him that’s not the way. Before she can finish, a shadow envelopes them. The giant hairy monster jumps down from the tree tops, roaring as it does so. Logan blocks its attack with his own claws but it still manages to knock him over. He gets up to fight it but it’s vanished again. It attacks him from behind again, slashing across his chest. Logan drops to his knees and then falls face first onto the ground. He tries to get up but he can only turn over. He stares up at the night sky as the monster looms over him and readies itself to finish him off. However, before it can strike him, a voice shouts out and Logan turns to see the red-haired kid walking towards them. He is surrounded by the goblin-like creatures and he tells the monster to let him be.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Waitress

Young boy

Monster

Goblin-like creatures

In dream

Wolverine

Amiko

Carnival game owner

Carnival tourists

Story Notes: 
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